MP Ancient is a member of the hip-hop collective The Scribbling Idiots, his career has seen many phases but for me his debut album “The Sound Protest” is his best work. We’ve seen him go through the Bill Blast persona, then go back to MotionPlus, but this time around he’s going by MP Ancient and I think it fits. For his latest album “No Expiration Date” the Scribbling Idiot teams up with New Jersey producer Grungy Boguez. Again I think this points at the focus of MP to take the one emcee, one producer approach to this record. So to recap, we have an invigorated and focused emcee, check, we have a producer who can create a linear soundscape, check. Let’s dive into MP Ancient and Grungy Boguez first collaborative album “No Expiration Date”.

MP Ancient handles the majority of the vocal duty on this and for good reason, this is an honest record my friends. Not just in the way that some prefer underground hip-hop because of its honesty, I’m talking about MP Ancient pulls no punches. And that goes for any field he’s rapping about whether it’s the government, whether it’s his past relationships, the theme of this album is brutal honesty. With most records I believe that emcees are honest and coming correct but to open up all the blinds and curtains in your glass house is rare and MP accomplishes that here.

Tracks like “War (Inside)” and “Don’t Speak” have MP calling out the government for what it is. This album is actually a bit more potent given the election cycle and just overall year in general. MP Ancient is speaking of a people who are following blindly in a country that doesn’t seem to have their citizens best interest in mind. The production by Grungy Boguez provides the bleek, dark canvas for the picture MP is painting. I hate to say it, but there isn’t a lot of hope on this record and you see that from dark cover art, the interludes from Grungy Boguez all drive the point home. In that same breath though, this isn’t “emo-rap” or some sadboy stuff. MP Ancient is taking a critical eye to everything around, it makes sense that the tone is more bleek.

Now it’s easy to make a record where the artist is constantly pointing the finger at others and blaming the bigger picture. But MP Ancient is willing to look in the mirror too and at times the realizations are almost as dark as the picture painted. However MP finds solace and patience in his spiritual journey, tracks like “Flawed” calls us all out for making mistakes, but MP also reminds us that in those mistakes we’re all one in the same. My absolute favorite track on “No Expiration Date” is “MSA” which features Scribbling Idiot Elias. MP opens his heart to us one more time and really takes an introspective look at himself. Any fan of the Scribbling Idiots and The HaveNots era of music I think will really have their eyes opened.

I love what MP Ancient and Grungy Boguez have done with their first LP. The only gripes I had with the record is that some of the beats were kind of predictable and some of the hooks were meh. However what matters here is that the bulk of the content is brutal honesty and I think some of us need a healthy dose of it and who better than MP. Grungy Boguez came correct and really helped take this record to the next level with the soundscape and interludes he created. Truth be told I strongly suggest you pick up this record, it will definitely be on my Slept On list.